CONTENTS Acknowledgements ... xi 1 INTRODUCTION : COINCIDING REALMS ... 1 The game plan ... 4 McLuhan & Company ... 18 2 THE RELUCTANT EXPLICATOR ... 24 Analogy and logic ... 26 The digital fulfillment, part I ... 28 The digital fulfillment, part II ... 30 McLuhan's medium ... 32 3 NET CONTENT ... 35 The medium as content : writing up on the screen ... 36 The user as content online ... 39 Media within media within media ...the primacy of speech and the exception of photography ... 41 4 THE SONG OF THE ALPHABET IN CYBERSPACE ... 44 The acoustic world, heard offline ... 46 Script, print, cyberspace ... 48 The acoustic world, seen online ... 49 A cyberspace sans alphabet? ... 51 5 ONLINE ANGELS ... 55 Virtual virtue and sex discarnate ... 57 God's-eye views ... 60 The devil in the DNA ... 62 6 FROM VOYEUR TO PARTICIPANT ... 65 Village of children, village of voyeurs ... 67 Politics in the online global village ... 70 Business in the online global village ... 75 7 THE FATE OF THE CENTER ... 80 God's space ... 81 Online education everywhere ... 83 The gravity of government ... 86 Monopoly online? ... 88 The city eternal : analog as digital ... 92 8 THE MIND BEHIND THE SCREEN ... 95 Science and the aesthetician ... 96 A kinetic understanding of media ... 98 The peripatetic couch potato ... 101 The screens and the skies ... 102 9 WAY COOL TEXT ... 105 Bare essentials of the media thermometer ... 107 Cultural consequences ... 110 Text interactive ... 113 10 THE RUSTED GATEKEEPER ... 119 Janus ascendant ... 121 Gatekeeping mentality ... 125 Filtration versus evaluation ... 127 From gatekeeper to matchmaker ... 129 11 SERFS TO SURF ... 132 Inside-out on the phone ... 133 The home office : friend of the family ... 135 The home office as friend : counter-indications ... 138 Toy, mirror, and art ... 140 12 BEAUTY MACHINES ... 145 Of delicatessen and convertibles ... 147 Television as art in the digital age ... 149 First loves and nostalgia versus art ... 152 The Internet as mainstream ... 154 13 BALINESE AT WORK ONLINE ... 158 Mythic proportions and Herculean tasks : vertical vs. horizontal ... 160 Theremin as therapy for art ... 164 Virtual virtuosity ... 169 14 THROUGH A GLASS, BRIGHTLY ... 173 The Web of rear-view mirrors ... 175 Rear-view mirror in the toolbox ... 178 Prescriptions for the future ... 182 15 SPIRALS OF MEDIA EVOLUTION ... 187 Basics of the tetrad ... 189 Spirit of the digital age ... 191 Deep retrieval and the digital arts ... 194 Reversal of the digital age ... 197 Reversal of media determinism ... 200 Bibliography ... 204 Index ... 212